Apparatus for separating garbage.



J. A. ANDERSON. APPARATUS FOB SEPARATENG GARBAGE.' APPLICATION FILED MN. 29, |916.

1,209,654. Patented Deo. 26, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

I. A. ANDERSON.

Patented Dec.'26, 1916.

MEETS-SHEET 2.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

Patented Deo. 26,1916.

J. A. ANDERSON APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING GARBAGE.

`APPLICAI'ION FILED JAN. 29,1916.v

vide means whereby the light material such u "la Laoacfaa;

To aZZ'fwwm t may concern.'

Be it known that I, JAMES A. ANDERSON, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of Barren Island, county of Kings, city'and State of'New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Separating Garbage, of which thev following is a specification. 'f i Thisv invention relates to new anduseful improvements inapparatus for separating the heavier or non-floata-ble portions of garbage from the lighter `or loatable parts thereof.

One of the main objects of the invention is to provide an apparatus by means of which the 'garbage will be conveyedV through a water tank in such manner that heavy material which does not constitute a part of the garbage proper will be permitted to drop tothe bottom of the tank, while the lighter material will be maintained at or near the surface of the water and conveyed therealong and out of thetank to a suitable disintegrating and pressing apparatus.

Another' object of the invention is to proas paper, corn husks, rags andthe like, will be picked up from the water before the garbage proper is removed from the tank. By means of this pick-up device all of these lighter non-grease-bearing materials will be prevented from passing to the disintegratf ing and crushing press.

Another object of the invention is to provide means whereby the heavy material such as bottles, broken Crockery, metal parts. and the like will be picked up from the bottom of the tank and conveyed to a suitable point for distribution and sorting.

There are other objects and advantages of the invention which will appear hereinafter.

, k In the drawings, Figurel and Fig. 1a constitute a complete longitudinal vertical.sec

tional view of the apparatus, Fig. 1 being' on Sheet 1 of the drawing and Fig. 1a being on Sheet 2 thereof; Fig. 2 a vertical sectional view of the device for breaking up and dis-` tributing the garbage 'to the separating ap# paratus; Fig. 3 a"detail plan view of the device for picking up rags Fig. 4.a transverse vertical sectional View of the separating t`ank and they apparatus therein.l

Referring to the various parts 'by reference characters, A designates the breakery and distributer through which the garbage is primaryA breaker.

and the like; and

arPARATUs roR SEPARATING GARBAGE. i

vSpcariltaticin of Letters Patentl 'Ptgntd De@ 269 19mg `Application led January 29, 1916. Serial No. 74,974. i y i a large hopper 1, provided with a suit-` able,I transversely extending, rigid primary breaker 2', said breaker consisting of two sharply inclined plates 3 which meet in a central, transversely extending, sharp ridge 4. The garbage is dumped from any suitable re'- ceptacle, or by any suitable means, into the said hopper, andis divided by means of vthis Below the bottom of the hopper two transverse shafts 5 are journaled, on each of which is mounteda series of breaker blades 6. These shaftsV are rotated in opposite directions and the said blades overlap at the center of the hopper, below the `open end 7 thereof. Suitable gearing and driving means `is provided for operating the breaker shafts. By vmeans of this device the garbage is broken up and distributed to the conveyer belt below in a substantially uniform condition.

The separator apparatus consists of a long separating tank 8 through ,which travels a conveyer 9, one yrun of the conveyer moving longitudinally of the tank slightly below the surface of the Water therein, as shown at 10, the other run thereof traveling on the bottom of the tank, as

. shown at 11. The receiving end 12 of the conveyer is above thetank, and the` upper run thereof travels in af trough 13 directly below the discharge end of the disintegrator A. The upper run of the conveyer moves from the receivingend 12 to the discharge end 141: The trough13, at its left-hand end, inclinesdownwardly into' .the tank 8 below the surface of the water therein, and-the conveyer is `forced to travel along` said trough by meansV of pulleys 15` and 1 6, said conveyertraveling over pulley 15l and under pulley 16. The water level of thetank is indicated at 17, slightly above that portion ofthe upper run of they conveyer between the wheels land 18, wheel 18 `b elng near the discharge end of fthe'tank. The conveyerv consists of two endless chains .1 9 sepa.-`

rated a suitable distance from eachother and `running along. the `sides of the. tank, said chains being. connected by double or balanced conveyerblades 20, saidiblades'projecting above, and below thef chains, as shown.v The trough 13 conforms substantially to the shape of thelblades, so that whatever material is dropped therem from the distributer A 'will be carried along through said trough by the blades 20. The

conveyer has no bottom, except in so far as the troughs in which it runs form the bot- 1tom for.it,so .thatwhen the material iscarried outv of the trough 13 into the tank 8 1ttion of the tank and insures the conveyer remaining under water. This submerging plate also insures the garbage being held under water for a considerable period of time. The purpose of this submerging plate is to hold empty tin cans, emptybottles and the like under water a sufiicient length of time to permit them to be filled, or partly filled, to insure their sinking and dropping away from the floatable garbage. At the discharge end of the tank 'the upper run of lthe conveyer passes into a trough 22, and

after passing around wheel 18' travels up the inclined part 22a of said trough to the wheel 18. The oatable garbage'is drawn into the trough 22 by the conveyer, and .then carried into the trough up the inclined part 22 thereof and delivered to the disintegrator or press C.

`In the wa r tank close to the delivery end of the trougy 13, is arranged a high-pressure water jet 23 from which upwardly projecting jets are forced for the purpose of breaking up and disintegratng the garbage as it comes from the trough 13, so that the heavier portions thereof willV be detached from the lighter portions and may sink to the bottom of the tank without wastage of the lighter materials.' -Extending longitudinally and transversely 4of the tank, and a suitable distance-below the water level, are, a'series of air pipes 24, provided 'with upwardly extending jets 25. Through these. jets air, under a suitable pressure, is forced, said air jets maintaining the garbage at the top of the water and against the submerging plate,

so that it will be conveyed along through the tank by the blades of the conveyer. It is manifest that these jets will. not be sufficiently strong to maintain anything but the garbage proper :near the surface od. the water, all foreign matter such as stones, pieces of metal, Crockery, glass, bottles and cans, falling to the bottom of the tank,

stripped and cleaned of all light material., The air jets will tend to holdma'terial such as paper, ragsand the like, against the subv merging plate, but the conveyer blades 20 hear at their upper edges against the` under surface of said plate, and act as Scrapers.

corn husks, and the like.

. tor and -plate is arranged the device for picking up the light material such as paper, rags and This device consists of a rotatable cylinder 26 carrying radial fingers 27, s aid fingers working in slots 28 in a stationary drum 29. The drum 26 is mounted eccentrically to the drum 29, so that the fingers will project beyond the surface of said drum as they enter the water, but will gradually pass into said drum as the fingers near the discharging point 30.

yIn this manner the material on the pick-up fingers will be stripped therefrom by the stationary drum as the fingers pass into said drum, due to the eccentricity of the'two drums. As the rags and other material is stripped from the fingers it passes down a chute 31 to a conveyer belt 32.

The lower run of the conveyer passes down the inclined trough 33 to the bottom of the tank, and thence along a trough 34 to the upwardly inclined trough 35. The upper end of this trough discharges into a chute 36 which delivers the material onto the conveyer D for distribution and sorting. The bottom of the tank forms the trough 34 as indicated clearly in Fig. 4, so that all the heavy material which drops therein will be carried by the conveyer uptrough 35 and vdischarged throu h chute 36 onto the assorting and distri uting belt.

By means of an apparatus of the character described herein the heavy materials, which really constituteforeign matter in the garbage, will be completely separated from the garbage proper so that they will not pass into the disintegrators and presses. Here- ,'tofore it has been a 'diiiicult and tedious oplpicked up from the surface of the water and is prevented from passing to the disintegralpress. The air jets will maintain practical y all of the lighter or floatable portions of the garbage forced against the perforated submerging plate, and the conveyer will move the material along the plate to the discharge end of the tank. By perfor-ating the submerging plate the air will not have a tendency to force the material toward thegrated glass and crockery ends Ithereof as might be the, case if the plate were solid or unperf'orate As the garbage is moved up the chute 22 at the discharge end of the tank a considerable quantity of water will be4 carried with it. The free oil and grease will be carried along with this water. Necessarily a large quantity of the free oil and greasewill be picked up by the garbage as it is drawn out of the water. It is especially desirable that this free oil and grease be carried along with the garbage to the disintegrator. The rate of liow of water into the tank is regulated in such manner as to avoid, if possible, any overflow, the inflowing water being merely sufficient to compensate for the amount of water. taken out of the tank by the wet garbage; In order that there shall be no waste of the free oil and grease floating on the top of the water inV the tank, an overflow pipe 37 at the discharge end of the tank is connected to suitable recovery tanks or vats.

'It will, of course,'be understood that the device for picking up rags, paper, etc., will not pick up any portion of the garbage proper, as that material is usually soft and of such character that it Will not be readily picked up by the pins 27 or any other pickup device suitable for operating on paper and rags.

'Through theoperation of the apparatus described herein, the by-products are greatly increased in value. All the metal contained in the garbage is separated from the garbage proper and delivered at a suitable point for proper 'separation and distribution. This not only increasesthe value of the garbage product and gives an added value to the properly separated metals, but prevents injury to the achinery and injury to the garbage products. Heretofore the presence of metal particles and broken and disintehas materially decreased the value of someA of' the garbage products, and particularly the tankage or fertilizer product. The presence of these foreign matters in the garbage as it is fed to the disintegrator, has resulted in enormous wear on the disintegratingmachinery, and frequently results in the breakage of parts thereof. This is all avoided by my method of preliminarily separating the heavy foreign matters from the garbage proper.

What I claim is: l. An apparatus for separating garbage comprising a water tank, an endless open horizontally movable conveyer arranged therein, and a water jet arranged in said tank near the intake end thereof and below the Water level and directing a vjet of water upwardly into the garbage to disintegrate the-same and separate the heavier materials from the lighter portions of the garbage.

2. An apparatus for separating garbage comprising a water tank, an endless open horizontally movable conveyer arranged therein, and a horizontal submerging plate in the tank to hold the conveyer and the garbage below the water level for aporton of its travel through the tank.

3..An apparatus for separating garbage comprising a water tank, a conveyer arranged therein, a perforated submerging plate in said tank adapted to hold the conveyer and the garbage below the water level, and a series of air jets below the water level and directing air upwardly to the conveyer through the perforated submerging plate.

4. n apparatus for separating garbage comprising a Water tank, a conveyer arrangedtherein, a` submerging plate in said tank adapted to hold t-he conveyer Iand the garbage below the Water level, and a series of airv jets below the water level and directing air upwardly to the submerging plate.

5. An apparatus for separating garbage comprising a Water tank, an open horizontallymovable endless conveyer therein with fits upper run near the water level and its lower run at the bottom of the tank, a horizontal submerging plate near the water level and serving to submerge the upper run of the conveyer and the garbage, means for maintaining the lighterlportions of the garbage near the surface of the water and against the under side of the 'submerging plate, whereby the said lighter portions will be carried through the tank by the upper run of the conveyer and the heavier portions will be conveyed out of the tank by the lower run thereof.

6. An apparatus for separating garbage comprising a water tank, an open horizontally movable endless conveyer therein with its upperrun near the water level and its lower run at the bottom of the tank, a horizontal submerging plate near the Water level and" serving to submerge the upper run of the conveyer and the garbage for the greater part of its travel through the tank, and air jets in the tank below the water lev'el to direct air upwardly through the-upper run of the conveyer to maintain the lighter portions of the garbage in the conveyer near the surface of the Water and against the under side of the submerging plate, whereby the said lighter portions will be carriedthrough the tank by the upper run of the conveyer and the heavier portions will be conveyed out of the tank by the lower run thereof.

7. An apparatus for separating garbage comprising -a water tank, an endless conveyer therein with its upper run near the water level and its lower runat the bottom of the tank, a perforated submerging plate near the water level and serving to submerge the upper run of the conveyer and the garbage, and air jets inthe tank below the water level to direct air upwardly through the lighter portions of the garbage in the conveyer near the surface of the water, whereby the said lighter portions will be carried through the tank by the upper run of the conveyer and the heavier portions will be conveyed out of the tank by the lower run thereof. j

8. An apparatus for separating garbage comprising a water tank, an endless conveyer arranged therein and consistingJ of endless chain belts, transverse conveyer blades connected to said belts, a receiving trough at the receiving end of said-tank, a discharge trough at the discharge endof said tank, means for supporting the upper run of the conveyer near the water level in the tank, means forv supporting the lower run of the conveyer at the bottom of the tank, a submerging plate in the tank near the water level thereof to submerge the conveyer blades and the garbage held between I them, a series of air jets below the water level and arranged to direct air upwardly vand between the conveyer blades to maintain the garbage near the surface of the water and between said blades, and means for delivering garbage in the0 receiving trough between the conveyer blades.

9. An apparatus for separating garbage comprising a water tank, an 'endless conveyer 'arranged therein and\ consisting of endless chain belts, transverse conveyer rblades connected to said belts, a receiving trough at the receiving end of said tank, a discharge trough at the discharge end of said tank, means for supporting the upper run ofthe conveyer near the water level in the tank, means for -supporting the lower run of the conveyer at the bottom of the tank, a series of air jets below the water level and varranged to direct air'4 upwardly and between the conveyer blades to maintain the garbage near the surface -of the water and between said blades, and means for deliver'- ing garbage in thereceiving trough between the conveyer blades.

10. An apparatus for separating garbage comprising 'a water tank, a receiving trough at one end thereof, a discharging trough at the other end thereof, an endless conveyer arranged in said tank with a portion there- "the tank, means for delivering substantially uniform quantities ofgarbage to the conveyer in the receiving trough, a submerging plate in the tank near the water level thereof and serving to submerge the upper run of the conveyer and the arbage carried thereby', means near the dise arge end of the tank to automatically pick up light floating material, a series of upwardly projecting jets in the tank to agitate the garbage and maintain the floatable portions thereof near the surface of the water, whereby the lighter portions of the garbage will be carried near the surface of the water by the upper run of the conveyer and the heavy portions. thereof will be carried along the bottom of the tank by the lower run of the conveyer.

11. An apparatus for separatinggarbage comprising a water tank, an endless conveyer arranged therein, means near the dis charge end of the tank to automatically pick up light floating material, and means in the tank` to agitate the garbage and maintain the floatable portionsthereof near the surface of the water. v l

12. An apparatus-for separating garbage comprising a water tank, an endless conveyer arranged thereinv and consisting of endless chain belts,p transverse conveyer blades connected to said belts, means for l supporting the upper run of the conveyer near the water level in the tank, means near the discharge end of the tank to automatically pick up and discharge light 'floating JAMES A. ANDERsoN. 

